Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
Last week WorkCompCentral’s [subscription required] Bill Kidd wrote about the battle in Illinois over reimbursement for surgical implants. The quick-and-dirty is hospitals are resisting a reduction in compensation for the devices themselves from 65% of billed charges to the manufacturer’s … Continue reading Why is it acceptable to shift costs to workers comp?
Read More...The much-anticipated ‘State of the Line’ presentation by NCCI’s Dennis Mealy (which will be available on ncci.com’s website next week) is the highlight of the Symposium. Here’s what Dennis had to say. First, the overall property and casualty (P&C) industry’s … Continue reading NCCI’s state of the industry 2010 – the details
Read More...While it’s not a done deal, the passage of health reform legislation is all but inevitable. When President Obama signs the bill on Tuesday, the American health care system will begin a change more drastic and comprehensive than anything we’ve … Continue reading Health reform’s implications for workers comp
Read More...To no one’s surprise. work comp medical costs appear to be on their way up, and at a rate significantly higher than the medical CPI. First the what, then the why. The latest data from NCCI indicate comp medical inflation … Continue reading Work comp medical costs – heading up…
Read More...That’s the word from several senators, at least as of last night. The last holdout, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, is reportedly on board after a lengthy negotiating session that ended late Friday. The bill is currently being read to the … Continue reading Health reform is a done deal
Read More...As health reform stumbles like an exhausted runner towards the finish line, we are starting to get a clearer picture of the potential changes reform will bring to the health care landscape. One that bears close watching is the increasing … Continue reading Health reform, hospitals, and work comp
Read More...Because that’s what it is going to ‘cost’ to replace the current Medicare physician reimbursement scheme with something else. And make no mistake, as Trudy Lieberman of the Columbia Journalism Review points out, most of the nation’s physicians are adamant … Continue reading Note to CBO – don’t forget to add that quarter trillion to the cost of health reform
Read More...The health plans’ lobbying group is out with a new analysis of the Baucus bill, claiming it will dramatically increase costs. It’s tempting to dismiss this as another industry-biased report produced by a firm bought-and-paid-for by the same industry the … Continue reading The AHIP study – more right than wrong.
Read More...The fierce battle over the public plan option is much ado about very little, an epic battle over a useless piece of political ground. It is the health care debate’s version of the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest – a … Continue reading Why the fight over the public plan option is pointless
Read More...Hospitals have agreed to accept cuts in reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid totaling $100 billion over the next ten years, with most of the reductions coming several years from now. Another $55 billion or so will be saved from several … Continue reading Hospitals agree to reduce their costs – sort of
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